Mental Health & Wellbeing

Wellbeing

The NHS suggests mental wellbeing means “feeling good about yourself and the world around you and being able to get on with life in the way you want”.

At Long Meadow School we recognise the important role that we have in promoting mental wellbeing.  All our staff support children to build resilience and across the school we raise awareness about the importance of good mental health.

Learning can boost self-confidence and self-esteem, help build a sense of purpose and help us connect with others.

We believe that happy children learn best when given opportunities to express emotions, understand their feelings and knowing that they have a safe space in which to resolve problems or anxieties.  We support our children in building strong supportive relationships. We provide every opportunity to develop children’s confidence and capacity to become successful learners.

Evidence from the NHS suggests there are 5 steps you can take to help improve your mental health and wellbeing, these are:

• Connect
• Be active
• Take notice
• Keep learning
• Give

Early support can help reduce both physical and mental health problems.  If your child is experiencing any level of worry or anxiety there are lots of things we can put in place to help.  Please do not hesitate to contact us at school before the worry grows.

Pupil Wellbeing Champions Committee

This Autumn Term, Long Meadow School have created a Pupil Wellbeing Committee of 25 Year 5 and 6 pupils who applied for their new roles.

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) says that children and young people should have a say in decisions that affect their lives.

The Pupil Wellbeing Committee members will be supporting Miss Kidd in promoting good mental health and wellbeing across the school.  They will be listening to the views of their peers and sharing their work across the school.  They have had training both in school and in our Secret Garden, focusing on understanding their own emotions, the Zones of Regulation, how to be an active listener, when to pass on concerns to an adult and how body language affects people’s responses to us.

They also practised playing playground games which they will share with other children on the playground, as and when appropriate.

They have already shared mindfulness and breathing strategies to the whole school in an assembly and, as a new committee, collectively created this vision for what they hope to achieve this year:

• we will help people; if they are upset, we will cheer them up and if they are lonely, we will help them find a friend or play a game with them or if they have had a fall out, we will help them sort it out
• we will raise awareness of mental health and wellbeing by creating posters and writing newsletters
• we will organise events, such as celebrating Children’s Mental Health Week, Child Health Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day and lead assemblies
• we will help at the LMS Mental Health and Wellbeing Fair
• we will raise money for a mental health charity
• we will support our local community, for example, visit an elderly care home

Useful links:

https://www.youngminds.org.uk/

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/

https://www.place2be.org.uk/

Our Designated Mental Health Lead is Miss Kidd, Mr Gray is a trained Mental Health First Aider, Mrs Seaton is our Learning Mentor & Parent Support Worker and Mrs Sanders is our SENCo.

Please see HERE to see our Whole School Mental Health & Wellbeing Approach.

Wellbeing Newsletters